The present invention relates to rotary vane pumps having self-lubricating sliding vanes. More particularly, the present invention is directed to a method and apparatus for inspecting the sliding vanes in a rotary vane pump to determine the amount of wear to the vanes without having to disassemble the pump housing.
Sliding rotary vane pumps have been used for several years for a multitude of mechanical and industrial applications and can be exposed to a wide range of environmental conditions. These pumps can be used in both gas and liquid pumping applications. One type of sliding rotary vane pump is a dry air pump. In the general aviation field prior to the early 1960""s, the vacuum systems which powered gyros were driven by pumps which were lubricated by oil and referred to in the art as wet pumps. In the 1960""s, the oil lubricated, or wet vane vacuum pumps, were replaced by dry vacuum pumps constructed of carbon vanes and rotors which were self-lubricating. To this present day, the standard dry vacuum pumps in the market comprise mechanical carbon rotors and vanes operating in a hardened metal ellipsoidal cavity. These pumps provide a power source for, among other things, gyroscopically controlled, pneumatically operated flight instruments.
A dry air type rotary vane pump usually has a rotor with slots with a radial component of alignment with respect to the rotor""s axis of rotation, vanes that reciprocate within these slots, and a chamber contour within which the vane tips trace their path as they rotate and reciprocate within their rotor slots. The reciprocating vanes thus extend and retract synchronously with the relative rotation of the rotor and the shape of the chamber surface in such a way as to create cascading cells of compression and/or expansion, thereby providing the essential components of a pumping machine.
Because dry air pumps do not use a liquid lubricant, other forms of dry lubrication have been developed. For example, vanes for rotary pumps have been manufactured from carbon material as disclosed in U.S. Pat. No. 3,191,852 issued to Kaatz, et al. on Jun. 29, 1965. These vanes are fabricated by compressing carbon, graphite and various organic binders under high pressure and temperature. U.S. Pat. No. 4,804,317 issued to Smart, et al. on Feb. 14, 1989, discloses a carbon composite material used for the side plates and vanes of the rotary pump. A composite carbon part is fabricated by combining carbon based tensile strength fibers (in a cloth weave) with graphite and an organic binder. Although providing improved performance over the prior carbon parts, similar wear, chipping and fracture problem exist with composite carbon parts. U.S. Pat. No. 4,820,140 issued to Bishop on Apr. 11, 1989, discloses a self-lubricating coating applied to the pump parts to inhibit wear between the slidable vanes and pump rotor. The coating is comprised of a mixture of lead and polytetrafluoroethylene deposited on the surface of the part to be coated.
While these lubricating methods work well for dry pump applications, the nature of the vane lubrication technique is destructive to the pump. Certain parts of these pumps are made of carbon or carbon graphite. These parts rub against other stationary or moving parts of the pump during operation. Graphite from these parts is deposited on the opposing parts by the rubbing action and forms a low friction film between the parts, thereby providing lubrication. The deposited graphite film is itself worn away by continued operation of the pump, and is eventually exhausted out of the pump. The film is replaced by further wear of the carbon graphite parts. Thus, lubrication is provided on a continuous basis that continuously wears away the carbon graphite parts. The vanes of the pump require and provide the majority of lubrication. Therefore, the vanes wear and lose length as the pump operates. At some point in time, the length of the vanes will become so short that they will not slide properly in the slot, which may lead to pump failure.
Failure of a dry air pump can render one or more aircraft systems inoperative. In addition, most pump failures occur in flight. Dry air pump performance is generally unaffected by wear on the vanes until total failure. Moreover, pump efficiency does not typically degrade enough to be noticed by the pilot until total failure. Usually, pump operation is monitored based on the aircraft""s vacuum gauge. If the pump is not operating correctly, the vacuum gauge will indicate such. However, this generally does not occur until near complete failure of the pump.
A correlation exists between the remaining length of the vanes and the expected future operational life of the pump. The inventor has determined that the incidence of structural failure of the vane/rotor combination begins to increase appreciably after the vanes wear to a certain length. The incidence of failures continues to increase and the rate of failure per unit time increases dramatically as the vanes continue to wear shorter.
The inventor has studied various dry air pump failures and determined that until the vane reaches about 74% of its original length, failure due to mechanical malfunction arising from reduced vane length is unlikely. The total failure rate from all causes for pumps with vanes having remaining lengths about equal to or greater than 74% is less than about 5% of the operating population. By the time remaining vane length reaches about 64% of the original length, about 50% of installed pumps have failed, and more than 90% of those failures can be traced to malfunctions relating to vane length. When the remaining vane length falls below 64% of the original length, more than 98% of the installed pumps studied have failed, and 95% of those failures are related to vane length.
While vane wear occurring as a result of graphite deposition for lubrication is normal, fairly predictable, and reasonably slow, vane wear can be accelerated if the carbon graphite parts rub against roughened interior surfaces of the pump. Roughness of the interior surfaces can occur through many different causes, such as elevated temperatures and pressures, dirty filters, etc. Regardless if the vane wear is normal, or abnormally accelerated, when the vane length reaches a certain percentage of the original length, the likelihood of pump failure increases significantly. The current state of the art relating to dry air pump performance and efficiency does not adequately address how to determine when the vanes of the pump have reached a point requiring pump replacement or repair. Presently, there is no effective and simple way to inspect the state or rate of wear of the vanes in this type of pump. There is also no simple and cost effective way to determine the remaining useful life of a dry air pump. Currently, to ensure proper pump performance, the operation time for dry air pumps is monitored. When the number of hours of pump usage reaches a predetermined and arbitrary figure, the pump is removed and a new pump is installed. This is neither cost effective nor efficient since the pump may have a significant amount of usage time still available, or, if wear was abnormally fast, would not be done in time.
What is lacking in the art is a simple and inexpensive way of determine vane length in a pump to determine the state of wear, the rate of wear, and potential remaining life of dry air rotary pump vanes. Such a feature would allow, in some cases, a knowledgeable technician to determine whether other pump or related system failures or malfunctions are attributable to vane length. Thus, the opportunity arises to remove from service pumps likely to fail. In addition, opportunities arise to make adjustments or repairs to related aircraft systems to correct other malfunctions determined by inspection of the dry air pump. By correcting system malfunctions that might cause the pump to operate in an overload condition, pump life may be extended, and unscheduled downtime for the aircraft can be avoided.
Therefore, it is an object of the invention to provide an improved method of determining the remaining useful life of a rotary vane pump without having to disassemble the pump to make that determination.
More particularly, it is an object of the present invention to provide a method of viewing the vanes within a rotary pump, and particularly dry air pumps, without having to disassemble the pump.
It is a further object of the present invention to provide a rotary pump housing that permits a determination of vane length, state of vane wear, the rate of vane wear and the potential remaining life of the rotary pump.
It is yet a further object of the present invention to provide a method for assessing the remaining life of a rotary pump by visually or by means of a gauge or stylus determining the length of the vanes in the pump without having to disassemble the pump.
These and other objects of the present invention are achieved in the preferred embodiments disclosed below by providing a rotary vane pump, comprising a housing within which is rotatably mounted a rotor having a plurality of slots therein with a vane positioned for sliding movement within each of the slots. An access port is formed in the housing communicating with the rotor at a reference position in relation to the slots. The access port is sized to permit alignment of any one of the slots with the access port by rotating the rotor, maintaining the vane within the aligned one slot and at a datum within the slot, and permitting entry into the access port of an aligned slot of a stylus having a predetermined length in relation to the datum for determining the length of the vane. A determination of whether wear to the vane has met or exceeded a predetermined amount can be determined by reference to a portion of the stylus exterior to the access port.
According to one preferred embodiment of the invention, the access port is positioned on a sidewall of the stator for accessing the rotor along an axially-extending surface thereof and for accessing the aligned vane along a longitudinal axis concentric with the longitudinal axis of the vane.
According to another preferred embodiment of the invention, the stylus is mounted for sliding movement within a sleeve.
According to yet another preferred embodiment of the invention, the probe includes a flange for being positioned against the housing adjacent the access port for stabilizing the probe and aligning the longitudinal axis of the stylus with the longitudinal axis of the aligned vane.
According to yet another preferred embodiment of the invention, the predetermined datum point comprises a radially-innermost end of the aligned vane.
According to yet another preferred embodiment of the invention, the stylus includes a first indicia indicating that vane wear is within an acceptable limit for continued use and a second indicia indicating that vane wear has reached or exceeded an acceptable limit and that replacement is required.
According to yet another preferred embodiment of the invention, the stylus includes a first color thereon that, when exterior to the access port, indicates that vane wear is within an acceptable limit for continued use, and a second color thereon that, when only the second color is exterior to the access port, indicates that vane wear has reached or exceeded an acceptable limit and that replacement is required.
According to yet another preferred embodiment of the invention, the vanes are radially-aligned on the rotor.
According to yet another preferred embodiment of the invention, the vanes are canted from a radius of the rotor.
According to yet another preferred embodiment of the invention, the vanes are canted from a radius of the rotor, and a longitudinal axis of the access port is aligned with the longitudinal axis of the aligned vane.
According to yet another preferred embodiment of the invention, the stylus is spring-loaded for urging the vane to the datum point within the aligned slot.
According to yet another preferred embodiment of the invention, the stylus is spring-loaded for urging the vane to the datum point within the aligned slot.
According to yet another preferred embodiment of the invention, the access port is circular in cross-section and the diameter of the access port is about the same as the thickness of the slots.
An embodiment of the method according to the invention involves determining wear to a vane of a rotary vane pump of the type having a plurality of vanes positioned for sliding movement within a plurality of respective slots formed in a rotor mounted for rotation in a pump housing. A preferred embodiment of the method comprises the steps of determining a reference position on the housing in relation to the slots, providing an access port in the pump housing at the reference position, rotating the rotor to align one of the slots with the access port, moving the vane in the one slot to a predetermined datum point, inserting a stylus into the access port and into contact with the vane in the aligned slot, and determining by reference to an indicia associated with the stylus whether wear to the vane has met or exceeded a predetermined amount.
According to yet another preferred embodiment of the invention, the step of providing an access port comprises forming the access port through an endwall of the housing from an exterior surface to an interior surface thereof.
According to yet another preferred embodiment of the invention, the step of providing an access port comprises forming the access port through a sidewall of the housing from an exterior surface to an interior surface thereof.
According to yet another preferred embodiment of the invention, the step of providing an access port comprises providing a bore extending through a sidewall of the housing from an exterior surface to an interior surface thereof.
According to yet another preferred embodiment of the invention, the step of inserting the stylus into the aligned slot comprises the step of positioning a sleeve within which the stylus is contained for sliding movement against an outer surface of the housing adjacent the access port.
According to yet another preferred embodiment of the invention, the step of determining by reference to an indicia associated with the stylus whether wear to the vane has met or exceeded a predetermined amount comprises the steps of placing on the stylus a first color that, when exterior to the access port, indicates that vane wear is within an acceptable limit for continued use, and placing on the stylus a second color that, when only the second color is exterior to the access port, indicates that vane wear has reached or exceeded an acceptable limit and that replacement is required.
According to yet another preferred embodiment of the invention, a rotary machine is provided, and comprises a housing within which is rotatably mounted a rotor having a plurality of slots therein with a vane positioned for sliding movement within each of the slots. An access port in the housing communicates with the rotor at a reference position in relation to the slots. The access port is sized to permit alignment of any one of the slots with the access port by rotating the rotor. The vane is maintained within the aligned one slot and at a datum within the slot. A stylus is introduced into the access port and into contact with an aligned vane of a stylus having a predetermined length in relation to the datum for determining the length of the vane. A determination of whether wear to the vane has met or exceeded a predetermined amount can thus be determined by reference to a portion of the stylus exterior to the access port.